Julie Goodridge and five other of the 14 plaintiffs from last year's landmark Massachusetts Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage force a meeting with Governor Mitt Romney to talk about the issue. Romney proves to be so ignorant that he mistakenly refers to Goodridge's daughter as adopted and says he's surprised that gay people even have families.

Mitt Romeny meets with the the LGBT Parents for twenty minutes and tells them:

"I didn’t know you had families"

The landmark case of Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, decided on November 18, 2003, was all about the rights of family members.

Julie Goodridge asks him:

"I said, ‘Governor Romney, tell me — what would you suggest I say to my 8 year-old daughter about why her mommy and her ma can’t get married because you, the governor of her state, are going to block our marriage?’"

Romney's response is:

"I don’t really care what you tell your adopted daughter. Why don’t you just tell her the same thing you’ve been telling her the last eight years."

Goodridge's case revolved around the fact that when she gave birth to her daughter, her partner Hillary Goodridge did not have a right to be in the delivery room. Julie Goodridge's reaction:

"I really kind of lost it. I’ve never stood before someone who had no capacity for empathy. It went behind flat affect. It was a complete lack of ability or motivation to understand other people."

Goodridge isn't the only person at the meeting who finds that Mitt Romney lacks basic human empathy for the experiences of gay people. David Wilson, another of the plaintiffs in the case, says:

"It was like talking to a robot. No expression, no feeling. People were sharing touching stories, stories where you’d expect recognition in the other person’s face that they at least hear what you’re saying — that there’s empathy. He didn’t even shake his head. He was completely blank."

Mitt Romney tried hard to avoid having this meeting at all. They requested a meeting back in November when the Goodridge case was decided but he never responded. Julie Goodridge wrote him a personal letter and he never responded. It's only when everyone shows up in front of his office today to hold a press conference where Goodridge can read her letter publicly that Mitt Romney finally agrees to meet these parents and families at all; after twenty minutes he describes the meeting as "pleasant."

Mitt Romney promised in his 1994 senate campaign that he'd be "better than Ted [Kennedy] for gay rights." It's not clear, though, that he even recognizes that gay people are entirely human beings.